


Foxes

by corbeod



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Kitsune, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Mythology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 16:23:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14116257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corbeod/pseuds/corbeod
Summary: Time stops when the boys turn eighteen. Ten years pass and their mother dies of illness at the age of sixty-eight, yet her sons, now twenty-eight, still appear as they did at eighteen. They watch their family leaves them alone. Soon they become known as untrustable tricksters, so they run.





	Foxes

**Author's Note:**

> i've been reading on twins in mythology and got inspired to write something

In a large room to the back of wooden house, light filters through and shines on two baby boys huddling against one another. They sleep atop a nest of blankets hidden in a basket-shaped as a burrow. One mumbles his sleep, a random string of noises, as neither has yet to learn to speak. The other sometimes moves in his sleep, sometimes pawing at his brother. They stay like this for many days, stuck peaceful slumber, save for when many guests are over and they take turns watching for danger. In a rare moment, one may catch them awake together.

“They are a blessing of Inari.” Their mother says as she watches them from the entrance to the room. “We should thank him.” Next to her, her husband nods.

The boys visit the Fushimi Inari-Taisha shrine for the first time as toddlers. They come for Yoimiya-sai and Motomiya-sai where they give thanks for the daily protection and blessings they have received throughout the year. Both thank the Inari for their birth at the request of their mother. Neither understand why, as Inari is not the god of childbirth or twins, but listen to their mother nonetheless. She promised extra food for good behavior during the trip.

And so the family visits every year since then.

The den grows with the boys until it lines the walls, and soon they are the only two allowed entrance. Inside they play with kind spirits that eventually follow them out to the farm. They help with the boys’ small garden near the center. The garden grows rice as its primary crop. It is the favorite food of one of the boys and a staple of the country, so it can be sold or kept for personal use. Herbs are also grown alongside the rice to add flavor to tuna, the favorite of the other boy.

Their parents argue often. The mother loves her sons dearly and wishes for one to rule the farm when her husband passes. The husband, however, believes the boys to not be his own, though he also cares for them, and wants another child to rule. The mother refuses for many years but when the boys are five, she gives birth to a girl. Her father cherishes her.

The twins speak to Inari when they are nine. It is a surreal experience, lasting no longer than three minutes, and the boys cling to it as much as they can. But when it is all over it has the feel of an old dream. One dreamt no less than five years prior. It no longer feels real. The only proof of the encounter comes they exit their den - each has their own tail.

Once the villagers learn of this event, the boys become known as messengers to Inari. They change the boys’ names to Atsumu, to assist, and Osamu, to rule. The villagers ask Osamu to protect the rice fields and Atsumu for the remaining crops. Their sister remains indoors to learn of government and politics, and later to care for their sickly mother.

Time stops when the boys turn eighteen. It is not apparent at first. The farmers continue in their work and the boys move on to protecting everything together. Ten years pass and their mother dies of illness at the age of sixty-eight. She was a gray, wrinkly woman at death yet her sons, now twenty-eight, still appear as they did at eighteen. And this still applies when they are thirty-eight, forty-eight, fifty-eight, and even when the farm is taken over by a new generation. They watch their family leaves them alone with children they could never be close to. Soon they become known as untrustable tricksters, so they run from the lively farm to a desolate area far, far away.

Days are tracked by adding a tally to a wall every night before they fall asleep. They live in isolation for three years before Inari instructs them to leave the empty field.

“Run into the forest. There you must search for and find a Kyūbi no Kitsune. He will assist you in your journey.”

The twins search the forest for three days and two nights. Atsumu takes up the right side and Osamu the left. They meet in a clearing at the center when dawn breaks on the third day. The  Kyūbi no Kitsune sleeps on a stump. The twins fall asleep at the base to the sound of him mumbling through his dreams.

This trio becomes a large group of kitsune in a few years time. Everyone is loyal to t he  Kyūbi no Kitsune, named Kita-san, and live under his watchful eye. This is family now, the twins decide, and so they treat the others as such.

(Atsumu steals their food. More often. At every meal. And their clothes too. His blankets may as well be the stolen clothes now. Someone stop him.)

**Author's Note:**

> i doubt humans are actually able to turn into kitsune in myths but oh well
> 
> also i might make a haikyuu series where i write stuff inspired by mythology


End file.
